1. Try to start building your city between two rivers or better still
and area of land where two rivers converge. Instead of building
walls to enclose the city put down a line of wells - the barbarians
can't cross water or destroy the wells so your city always gets off
to a good start.
2. Raise your personal income to around 100 denari so you can build up
a personal fortune. Thay way you can use your wealth to invest when
times get hard. Only accept promotion when you've got maximum personal
fortune.
3. Don't build houses close to industry and workshops - people won't live
there and the houses won't get past the second stage of development.
4. People want to live close to the forum - bath houses and oracles. Make
sure houses have the necessary water supply and if you build roads
near them they're much more likely to grow.
5. Don't forget to take care of the provincial level - you must keep the
barbarians out of your city. Increase the slave wages and army wages
straight away - it's worth making the army wages absurdly high.
Assign more slaves than you need to all the duties (particulary fire
prevention) and when you've recruited plenty of soldiers switch to the
provincial level. Place a couple of cohorts as a precautionary measure
and make them patrol around your city.
Spend some time on the provincial map watching for where the barbarian
ships are landing and when you see where the troops come ashore. Put a
line of wall along the coast. The next time the barbarians land they
should be trapped on the beach and they won't be able to knock down
the wall. You can now carry on building your city in peace just make
sure the walls don't deteriorate.
